


F. Emasculata

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [46]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Gen, Introspection, MSR, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 21:41:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4682435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	F. Emasculata

_“How long will this take?”_   
_“Thirty minutes… and another two hours before the parasite reproduces enough larvae for us to see it.”_

They were going to be, quite possibly, the longest two-and-a-half hours of her life. In some ways, of course, it was fitting; if you’ve only got 36 hours to live, wouldn’t you want each moment to last as long as possible?

In this case, however, she found it hard to enjoy the time, knowing that it separated her from the answers she simultaneously needed and feared. Never mind that if she did only have a day and a half left to live -- or less -- she was going to have to spend it all in a literal prison anyway. There would be no farewell tour, no last chance to hug her mother, to tell Mulder… 

Mulder.

The parallels inherent in their last conversation were not lost on her. Just as she had cautioned him against leaking news of the contagion to the public without more information, she too had refused to disclose to him the possibility that she herself might be infected. Telling him would have done more harm than good at this point in the investigation. There wasn't anything he could do about it if she was infected, and if he got wrapped up in worrying about her, he might miss something vital out in the field, something that could cause even more people to die. Better to wait until she knew for sure whether there was actually something for him to worry about.

Besides, she was doing more than enough worrying for the both of them.

She looked over at Dr. Osbourne, knowing that she was looking at a dead man walking. Logic and reason told her that if she had become infected at the same time he had, she should be displaying physical symptoms by now. Still, logic and reason _also_ told her that incubation periods were variable, and even if she had been fortunate enough to avoid exposure when the pustule erupted on Dr. Osbourne, there was no guarantee she hadn’t been exposed sometime after that. There was still too much they didn’t know, about the parasite, about its life cycle. Even now, despite Osbourne’s assurances that she could not be infected by the bite of the insect currently trapped against her arm, she couldn’t help but worry that he might be mistaken. It took no small amount of concentration not to flinch every time she felt the pinch of another bite.

She worried about Mulder, too. He ran a very real risk of exposure as he pursued the prisoner still at large; it wasn’t as though he or the marshals were running around out there in full HazMat protective gear. She stole another glance at Osbourne and tried not to imagine Mulder suffering in the same way, a sheen of sweat across his face as he shivered with fever and the knowledge that his inevitable death was likely only hours away.  

It was unconscionable, what the pharmaceutical company had done, using the prison population as lab rats. Even worse, the government was complicit. It was state-sanctioned murder, and if they were not able to contain the outbreak, thousands or even millions of lives could be lost. Yet the enormity of the situation was eclipsed, in that moment, by the greater personal loss that she or Mulder might face, if one or both of them were infected. 

How many times had they faced this very threat? (Not the specifics of the contagion, obviously, but the general threat of losing one another.) How many more times would they face it, given the nature of their work? It was never going to get any easier. In fact, the longer they worked together, the closer they were likely to become, and the idea of having to continue on without him would only get harder.

A timer beeped, and Scully jumped at the sound.

“Okay,” Dr. Osbourne said, his voice strained, “we can remove the capsule from your arm and begin the incubation period.”

Great. Only two hours left to wait.  



End file.
